Page 48 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

Tara closed her eyes and calmed her breathing. “Give me a reason not to go on this date,” she said into the phone, repeating the question she’d texted him.He’s not for youwasn’t areason.

“Because I don’t want you to,” Elias said. His voice was still commanding, but it was also thick with frustration and maybe a little anger,too.

“Why?” In her head, Tara was screaming for Elias to tell her “because she was actually forhim.”

“It’s not a simple answer, luv. Not for why you shouldn’t be with Tucker or why you can’t be withme.”

She thought she heard a muttered “yet,” but that was probably just her stupid heart causing her to have auditoryhallucinations.

But, there it was. She couldn’t be with him, and maybe he had the right to say that because it was his choice. But it wasn’t his choice if she was with Tucker. That was her decision and no one else's.“I have to go,” she said, trying very hard not to sound like she was terribly upset. “My date ishere.”

“Shite,” he hissed. “Tara, please talk to m—” She ended the call before he could finish thesentence.

Chapter 14

Tara took a deep breath and then pulled the front door open. Tucker stood there with his hands in his front pockets, grinning. He really was handsome, and his smile wascontagious.

“I know I’m early, but I changed my mind on what I wanted to take you out to do. It would be better to do this in thedaylight.”

“Do what?” she asked as she sent a quick text to Carol letting her foster mother know her plans for theevening.

“Have you ever thrown anaxe?”

If it were possible, his grin got bigger. Probably because Tara’s mouth dropped open. That wasn’t a question a person got asked every day. Orever.

“Can’t say that Ihave.”

“Excellent.” He rubbed his hands together. “My friends and I have set up a range that’s sort of like a shooting range, only foraxes.”

“Um, am I dressed okay for axe throwing? Shouldn’t I be wearing flannel or overalls or something like that?” Her jeans and T-shirt were superexciting.

“You look perfect,” he said. The smile had vanished, and his face was serious. “You always lookperfect.”

Wow, talk about intense. It was too early in their not-dating-relationship for intense. Tara ducked her head. “Thank you,” she mumbled as she grabbed her purse from the hook next to the door and her keys out of her backpack. “I’m ready togo.”

She stepped outside and immediately felt like she was being watched. She looked around as they walked out to Tucker’s truck, but she didn’t see anything out of place or any strange vehicle that stood out. She tried to shake off the feeling, but even after Tucker had helped her into the truck and they were on the road driving, Tara still felt as though someone was watching her, followingher.

Twenty minutes later, Tucker turned off the service road onto a long dirt road. He’d only told her a few axe throwing horror stories during the drive, so now Tara was only slightly nervous about the excursion instead of deeply terrified. There were deep grooves in the dirt road from where vehicles had driven on it when the ground was wet and the dirt had been washed out. She bounced around, even though she was wearing her seat belt and Tucker was driving slowly. Tara imagined she probably looked like a bobblehead and then nearly laughed because Shelly would have definitely said something along those lines. Or something dirty. Okay, definitely somethingdirty.

“Here we are,” Tucker said as he pulled into a makeshift parking spot in between two other large trucks. “A few guys from the team are here and their girls. I hope that’sokay.”

Tara nearly sighed in relief. They weren’t going to be alone and have awkward moments of silence. They also wouldn’t have any privacy that would allow Tucker to try and kiss her. Not that she thought he would kiss her. But ever since Shelly had sent that text to Elias, Tara hadn’t been able to stop thinking about kissing Tucker while imagining it was Elias.Make like some Frozen characters and let it go,Tara.

Tucker helped her out of the truck and then wrapped a couple of his fingers around hers, pulling her along beside him. “I will warn you that unless you work your arms out on a regular basis, this will leave you soretomorrow.”

“Soreness,” Tara said, nodding her head. “It’s totally myjam.”

Tucker laughed. “That’s why I like you, T. You’re funny as hell, but nobody knows about it because you never talk toanyone.”

“Thanks … Ithink.”

“Com’n.” He nodded with his chin. “Let me introduce you to the tribe, although you might know some of them. That’s Jason Brockman,” he pointed to a guy who wasn’t much taller than Shelly, with muscles that made him look like a box. He had his arm around Desiree.Fantastic.She forced herself to smile. “And you know his girl,Des.”

“Yep,” Tara said an gave Desiree a head nod. That was cordial,right?

“That’s Jasper Cotton and his girl, Harper. You won’t know her because she’s actually a freshman over at the community college inRiverbend.”

“Nice to meet you, Harper,” shesaid.

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